Spacecraft aiming to land on Mars have skipped past the planet, burned up on entry, smashed into the surface, and made it down amid a fierce dust storm only to spit out a single fuzzy gray picture before dying.

Almost 50 years after the first casualty at Mars, NASA is attempting its hardest Martian touchdown yet.

The rover named Perseverance is headed Thursday for a compact 5-mile-by-4-mile (8-kilometer-by-6.4-kilometer) patch on the edge of an ancient river delta.

What to expect when the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover arrives at the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021:

With about 2.4 million miles (3.9 million kilometers) left to travel in space, NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is days away from attempting to land the agency's fifth rover on the Red Planet.

Life as we know it has never been found anywhere in our solar system or universe, other than on Earth. But that does not necessarily mean it is not out there.

The Mars 2020 mission is the first NASA mission with an explicit astrobiology component. Planned to be executed in multiple parts over decades, Mars 2020 and related missions aim to be the first to return samples of another planet for the purpose of examining them for signs of life.

But what do scientists hope to find? How will they know if or when they have found it? What does it mean for life on Earth if something is found, and what does it mean if it is not?

When one of the Russian Progress resupply ships undocks from the International Space Station, timing is everything. The Progress needs to fire its engines at just the right time to instigate the deorbit burn in order for the ship to enter the atmosphere at just the right place so that its destructive re-entry occurs over the Pacific Ocean. That way, any potential surviving bits and pieces that might reach Earth will hit far away from any land masses—which are home to people, buildings, and other things we don't want to get bonked.

Last week, the timing for the Progress MS-15 cargo ship was just right, so that the astronauts/cosmonauts on board the ISS could see the ship as it broke apart and burned up in Earth's atmosphere. JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi shared the view on social media.

"Farewell, Progress 76P MS-15! #Russian cargo spacecraft undocked from #ISS, and successfully burned up," Noguchi tweeted, sharing a photo of the Progress' fiery demise.

Farewell, Progress 76P MS-15! #Russian cargo spacecraft undocked from #ISS, and successfully burned up. #ロシア　プログレス宇宙船、役目を終えて大気圏突入時の夜空に燃え尽きる瞬間を見事に捉えました！#はやぶさ 思い出すと泣けます。。。 pic.twitter.com/2OLMrlmAKO

— NOGUCHI, Soichi 野口　聡－（のぐち　そういち） (@Astro_Soichi) February 9, 2021

For the first time in 11 years, the European Space Agency (Esa) is recruiting new astronauts. Applications will open on the 31 March 2021 for eight weeks, followed by a six-stage selection process to identify the next generation of European astronauts.

By 2030, humans will once again walk on the surface of the Moon, travel to Mars and potentially enjoy sub-orbital holidays. The new space era will provide enormous benefits to all of us. It will push technologies as we find ways to live sustainably beyond planet Earth, it will create exciting jobs and it will generate new socioeconomic opportunities.

Recruiting new astronauts is the first step into this new era of human space exploration. Many people may have dreamed of becoming an astronaut since childhood, but do you have what it takes?

The criteria

Becoming an astronaut is not simple, nor is it easy. Esa is looking for candidates with different profiles and backgrounds. However, there are some minimum requirements.